As a wife, mom of four, and Certified Nutrition Counselor, I care about my impact on the food choices we make. Everything we eat has a profound effect on our bodies, the environment, and our future. We eat not just to satisfy hunger, but also to nourish and enrich our lives. Eating and buying clean resources keeps your body and the Earth healthy and thriving. Dedicated to educate on the Mind, Body, Spirit, and Food, looking at the whole body for that #OOLA life.

Monday, March 11, 2013

Hoppin For Health March 11 Understanding Your BMR

This is just a fun motivational hop with one common goal- Getting Healthier!

If you have any get fit tips, healthy recipes and eating tips, or on a weight loss journey of your own feel free to join us!

Check out the below blogs who are all on a journey to live a healthier lifestyle!

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This week has been more organized and productive. I owe this making a Menu, Workout Schedule, and understanding my BMR.

Recapping from last week, you have to make your goals and stay on them. When you accomplish a goal, make sure you stay in motion for the next one. This is where people tend to fall off the fitness wagon, thinking you can take a few days off and then you notice a month later you have not started back.

One of the mistakes of working out is eating too little and eating too much. You may be working really hard and not be seeing your scale moving and wonder why. One of two things that can contribute to this.

Eating too many calories.

Not eating enough calories.

When we eat more calories than we burn we will continue to gain weight. We can be working out and build muscle and tone, but we won't lose weight unless we reduce our calories intake. Equally frustrating is reducing calories so low, that our bodies go into "survival" mode and do not allow our bodies to burn the calories we take in. In survival mode the calories are converted to fat and set to storage. This contributes to the yoyo effect. You can be working out and losing weight, then you eat a higher calorie meal, and gain it all back. You need to have a balance of food eaten and calories burned.
Whether you are looking
for weight loss, gain, or maintenance you have to know your calories and energy
distribution.I would like to put this in
terms we all can relate too.Think about
money, how we spend and save it.Overweight and underweight individuals result from unbalanced energy
budgets.The amount of fat you might
deposit or withdraw affects the "savings" deposits on your energy
balance for that day and the transactions that take place.What do I mean by transactions?It is the amount of energy you consume (energy
in) versus the energy you spend (energy out).You can reduce your fat deposits by withdrawing more energy from your
body than you put in. Lets all reduce those deposits!

Calories = Energy

One pound of fat stored within the body holds 3,500 calories.
To lose one pound, you have to burn 3500 more calories than you take in.To lose that 1 lb. in one week you would have
to burn 500 calories a day.So watching
your calories taken in and the ones you burn can help you budget the weight
loss, gain, or maintenance.

It is always a good idea to be recording your foods in your
journal every week. This allows
you to see what calories you are bring in and the balance of weight. You can see foods that have helped and the ones that set you back.

When estimating what your energy intake should be on a daily
basis there are two things you should look at; metabolic processes and
voluntary activities.We will estimate
your two activities individually then add them together.

What is you BMR- Basal Metabolic Rate

This will help you know how many calories you need to eat everyday.

Metabolic energy is the energy burned every
day and night for body functions.It is
the body's maintenance functions working independent of outside activity; heart
beats, breathing, cell growth and repair, waste removal, digestion, nervous
functions, nutrient conversions, and more.In a sense you are burning calories without even knowing this process is
taking place.The energy used for body
maintenance is called Basal Metabolic Rate, BMR.BMR is the rate at which energy is spent for
the body’s maintenance activities and is different for every person.Voluntary activities are the other components
taking into consideration when estimating your body’s energy needs.It is the energy output through physical
exertion, voluntary, with use of the skeletal muscles.When you contract the skeletal muscles you
use up a great deal of calories, this is why resistant training is so
beneficial.Whether you do these
activities through exercise, yard work, house work, your type of employment,
you are using different voluntary energy than another person.

EXAMPLE: calculating for a man

For men factor in 1 calorie per kilogram per hour, so for a
150 lbs. man we must first convert to kilograms.

Then multiply the calories used in one hour by the hours in
a day (68 x 24= 1632 cal per day).

Your MBR will be 1632 a day.

Now calculate your voluntary muscular energy needs.This is an estimation of energy you spend
through daily activities.Do not confuse
busy with active.Look at these terms to
decide which category you fall into.

Let’s take a 150 lb male clerk for example.We will multiply his BMR (1632) to 50 %.

(1632 X 50% = 816 calorie a day).

Now add the BMR and the Voluntary together.1632 + 816 = 2448 cal/day.

So his energy needs and used are 2448.To maintain his weight he would need to have
a daily intake of 2500 calories.If he
was going to lose weight it would need to be a 2000-2200 calorie intake.For Weight gain he would consume more than
2500 daily.

EXAMPLE: calculating for a woman

If we were looking a woman the only difference would be than
a woman uses 0.9 calories per kilogram per an hour.This would be the same conversion Shown here
as a 150 lb female clerk.

BMR (150 / 2.2 = 68 kg)

Then multiply the kg by the BMR factor.(0.9)

(68kg x 0.9 = 61.2 cal/hr)

Then multiply calories by hours in a day.

(61.2 x 24 = 1468.8cal per day)BMR is 1468.8 a day.

Now your voluntary activity.

1468.8 cal x 50 % BMR = 734.4 calorie per day.

Add them together.

1468.8 + 734.4 = 2203.2 calories per day.

If the female clerk wanted to either loss, gain, or maintain
her weight she would use these calculations to decide calorie intake and
restriction.

When you add in exercise you would look to make sure you are
taking in enough calories to burn the extra energy as well.These calories vary with different types of
exercise.

When putting together a lower calorie nutritious menu remember
to keep in enough calorie for daily functions.A good rule of thumb for weight loss is taking your current weight and
multiplies it by 10.(150 x 10 = 1500 calorie).Your calories in are less than the calories
burned.2203.2 - 1500 = 703.2 calories
burned that day.While to lose weight it
is not ever recommended to consume less than 1200 calories a day.The dieter will lose lean muscle tissue,
which will result in malnutrition and some side effects can be irritability,
nervousness, injury, or worse.Also, you
can be counting calories of food that are high calorie but low in nutritional
value.Make sure you are eating quality
foods like fruit, vegetable, and grains, that are low in calorie and high in
fiber for satiety. I get so frustrated when someone counts calories of chips, candy, muffins, and other junk foods, reducing calories but adding up empty calorie foods. Make your food choices from whole foods and limit the junk foods and nonfoods to minimal.

You can grab recipes and ideas from here but my serving sizes are based on 2000 calorie days when I a running, and 1400-1500 calories on other days. I tend to eat larger portions of vegetables and fruits that have lower calories but lots of vitamins, minerals, and fiber.